Chicago White Sox: Tim Anderson could spark change in the MLB

It was a very good series for the Chicago White Sox when the Kansas City Royals came to town, but one moment sticks out over everything else.

The Chicago White Sox won their series vs the Kansas City Royals at home, but that wasn’t the most memorable moment. The most memorable moment actually came in the only loss for the White Sox in the series. It was when Tim Anderson unloaded on a pitch by Brad Keller and hit it to the moon. After he knew it was gone he threw the bat back at the dugout in a fired up manner.

Keller and the rest of the Royals didn’t find it very funny. In fact, in Anderson’s very next plate appearance Keller threw one right at his backside. Anderson did not charge the mound but Royals catcher Martin Maldonado got in Tim’s way and it sparked a bench and bullpen-clearing disagreement.  The managers and a good amount of players got pretty heated in the scrum but there weren’t really any punches thrown.

For some reason, Anderson was ejected as well as White Sox manager Rick Renteria. Anderson really didn’t do anything other than be hit by a pitch. Jose Abreu did a pretty nice job of holding Anderson back and keeping him from being too involved. It was probably a bad call to throw him out, especially because he has been one of the two best players on the team so far this season and he was on with no outs in a tie game. Keller was also ejected but he did something wrong like throwing a baseball at another human being.

MLB has had a problem on their hands for a while now, and that is that for some reason they don’t like fun. Anderson had just hit a mammoth home run to put his very young team ahead in a game. They’ve been a losing team during his entire MLB career and he finally sees it turning the corner. Him showboating a home run did nothing to physically harm anyone on the Kansas City Royals.

Do you know what has been known to physically harm someone in the past? Being hit by a major league fastball. It appears that the MLB won’t do anything about this problem until someone gets really hurt by a beanball or someone charges the mound and hurts the pitcher by fighting them. It may be time for the MLB to insert supplemental discipline for any pitcher who clearly throws at a batter.

It appears on social media that Anderson may have sparked extra conversation by the way he handled himself following the incident. He didn’t really trash anyone to the media after the game, besides saying that he is going to continue being him. MLB wants younger people to pay more attention to baseball, but doing anything fun gets you hit by a pitch in your next at-bat. Nobody wants that old school mentality of you can’t have fun anymore. They celebrate big moments in every other sport, so it is time for that in baseball too. It is time for them to make a change that will allow it’s players to be themselves and punish those who attempt to injure.

Baseball, at it’s best is one of the best sports on the planet. We want to see it’s best players playing well and have fun doing it. It is the entertainment business, after all. Give us the show we pay our hard earned money to watch.